Meningitis outbreak in rebel-held north kills 33

A total 33 people have died since January this year in a meningitis outbreak in Cote d’Ivoire’s rebel-held north, the United Nations Children’s Fund said this week.

“We are taking action immediately to avoid new cases of meningitis,” UNICEF representative Youssouf Oumar told IRIN on Monday

The 94 cases identified and the 33 deaths were registered in the towns of Bouna, Seguela, Mankono, Boundiali and Korhogo, he said.

Health facilities have all but broken down in the rebel north since Cote d’Ivoire split in two after a failed coup in September 2002.

To stem the meningitis outbreak, UNICEF planned a vaccination campaign in the north, which begun last weekend in the rebel headquarters town of Bouake, targeting the tens of thousands of students gathered there to sit exams over the past week, Oumar said.

“We targeted the students sitting exams because they come from different locations and it’s easier to transmit the illness when there is a gathering,” he added.

The UNICEF representative was flanked by Ivorian Health Minister Remi Alla Kouadio, who thanked those civil servants who remained behind in the north for continuing to provide health care. He also thanked UN agencies such as UNICEF and the World Health Organisation, as well as Medecins Sans Frontieres, which runs the public hospital in Bouake, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Meningitis attacks the brain and the central nervous system, causing fever and severe headaches. It is caused by bacteria or viruses often found in airborne dust and is prevalent in West Africa during the dry season that runs from October through to May and is highly contagious.